I need a Hero
by Spacebutt
Summary: Duo realizes that he loves Heero, but all he can do is tell him that he likes him. 1x2. Fluff. Rated for language. A short get together fic. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **Duo realizes that he loves Heero, but all he can do is tell him that he _likes _him. And sing a song.

**Disclaimer: **Gundam Wing does not belong to me. The lyrics of the song don't belong to me either. But I love Shrek.

**AN: **NOT A SONG FIC. Kind of based on _Frou Frou'_s song, "I need a Heero." Uh…I mean hero. This is another one-shot due to the fact that _Cold Iron _has no gotten 2428 hits. I mean _wow. _So this is the 2000 hit ficcie.

* * *

I need a Hero

Schmoogy

* * *

The sun was shining. '_Not for long.'_

It was a beautiful day. '_Rain cloud on the horizon._'

The birds were singing in the trees. '_Damn morning chorus. Kill them please._'

And the house was _not_ covered in toilet paper or graffiti. '_For once._' And no one had kicked the trashcan over. '_Yet_.' And there were no missions for the week. '_As if.'_

I didn't growl at my inner voice. I was far too happy to worry about that. I giggled madly, bouncing up and down cross-legged on my unmade bed.

I didn't understand why the hell I was so worked up, nor did I care. I had an absolutely ecstatic grin on my face and it stretched across from ear to ear. Shit, I think that my lips are splitting. Ah well, didn't care either. The fluttery feeling was in my stomach. It was the kind of feeling that would make _you _(and Wufei) break out in smiles all over, as I would in pimples in the height of puberty. The kind that squeezed my chest and soul together and made me feel like laughter could _bubble _out of my mouth and make me sound like a loon. The kind that made every blasted song on the radio sound like a pop hit. It made every under-five-year-old-brat cute, even if they were tugging on my braid and sinking their nails into my leg. It made Relena seem slightly less obsessed with Heero.

...Well, I wouldn't go that far. But hell, nothing could get me down today.

I think you got the picture now. That's what I, Duo Maxwell, felt like. Unfortunately, I don't think that Heero, soldier of perfection, was on the same wavelength as I was.

Shame. Well, tough for Heero and all the more fun for me.

Heero was morbidly typing his life away on that blasted laptop of his while I was laughing at my attempts to touch my nose with my tongue. Amazingly enough, I couldn't. "Heeee-chan," I crowed happily after giving up. "Can you touch your nose with your tongue?"

The answer was a deadpanned one. "No." Jeez, his voice is flatter than crepe under a steamroller. Gotta sweeten it up with honey or something.

I rolled over in the bed and let my head hang over the edge. Wow, my bangs are getting really long. They just flop all over the place and they never stay tucked behind my ears. I felt my braid slide down with my movement. It swung around like an out of sync metronome. Damn, that thing is really heavy sometimes. I nearly fell off the bed completely. "What? How 'bout kissing your own elbow?" I suddenly suggested, cocking my up-side-down head to the side. I hoped I looked cute. Even Heero can't resist that.

...what? He can't!

Heero didn't even turn in his chair to look at me. His gaze remained on the whirring computer. "No. It is physically impossible," he said in that monotone of his. Bleah. That will definitely have to go. I rolly-pollied off the bed and fell on the floor with a thump. Ouch. I lay in a heap for a moment, but then leaped up to drape my arms around Heero's lean shoulders. He didn't stiffen or flinch like usual. He carried on typing, but I swear that there was a happy little glint in his eyes. My inner Duo's were cheering and celebrating like crazy.

I think that he realized that he had succeeded in starting a party inside my head, because he suddenly turned around to face me and growled from the bottom of his throat. But the happy little gleam was still in those Prussian eyes. '_You can't scare me Hee-chan,' _I thought smugly and engaged in a staring match. The air became tense around us and I could almost see the bolts zapping between our eyes.

I knew that I couldn't win. Not with Mr. Blinking-is-a-liability-to-the-mission. Best tactic here is a surprise attack. So I did just that by suddenly licking him on the nose. The nose crinkled under my touch and I heard Heero take a sharp breath. He moved back quickly.

Shit, did I overstep my boundaries? Aw man, come on Heero. Don't crash on the trust thing that I've been working on for months. Well, he hasn't killed me yet, so I think that I'm still in the green zone. Maybe the edge of the green zone, but I'm still safe nonetheless. Heero stared at me strangely with a calculating look. I could almost hear the well-oiled gears inside that rock hard head of his move. The look disappeared and he rubbed his nose.

I giggled and unwrapped my arms from his frame. Can't hang on forever. I was very pleased to see a disappointed glow appear in his eyes. Tough, if he wanted a hug, he should come get it himself. Heero-hugs were very rare and barely given without any prompting from Quatre or myself. Let's see if the big lump can be bothered to move his ass.

The bastard stayed seated and smirked at me before turning back to his computer. I felt my mouth drop to the floor. The sadist! What? Does he think that I'm just gonna go and put _my_ arms around _his_ shoulders again, then he's _wrong-o. _

Awww shit. This is harder than I expected. I think that he knows about my internal battle. Half of me wants to walk out the door and watch him suffer and the other half wants me to kiss him. Whoa. _Kiss him? _What the hell was that? Pass on that question; I'll come back to that later.

You know, when a dog is torn between two actions, it does neither and often opts just to sit there and scratch itself. That's what I did. No, I didn't suddenly sit down and start picking out the itches. I sat back down and the bed and stare at Heero. It makes them all paranoid. Especially Heero.

"Duo, stop that."

I sighed and for once agreed. Rolling over onto my stomach, I grinned as a thought came to me. It was a brilliant thought and it was gonna kill Hee-chan. "Heero," I said solemnly. "I need a Heero."

He paused in his working before swiveling around to give me a _What? _stare.

"I'm holding out for a Heero 'til the morning light. He´s gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast." I stood up on the bed and punched my arm into the air. "And he's gotta be fresh from the fight!"

I managed to say all this without my voice breaking with laughter, an especially hard task due to the bemused look on Heero's pretty face. Definitely a Kodak moment. I started to giggle and plowed on with my song. "I need a Heero. I'm holding out for a Heero 'till the morning light. He's gotta be sure. And it's gotta be soon. And he's gotta be larger than life. Larger than life."

Amazingly, I got through the whole song without being threatened, maimed or even interrupted. Heero just sat there, still as a statue but I knew that he was definitely listening. I can usually read people really well. You know, I can tell if someone wants to kill me by looking for a murderous gleam in the eyes. But the dance of emotions in Heero's eyes was illegible. I couldn't pick out anything. The meanie.

After I finished, I sort of fell back on to the bed with hiccup laughter racing through my whole being. I found it unbelievable that I even remembered the words to the oldie. And Heero just sat there, as if contemplating something. "What's wrong Hee-chan?" I asked breathlessly, still clutching at my sides.

"Nothing," he said before turning around and shutting his laptop down. As the power died down, he joined me on the bed, sitting next to me. I was too busy laughing to realize how close he was. I stopped chortling for a second to look at him.

His eyes were gleaming again. Heero had such a peaceful expression on his face, that all traces of hyperactive happiness that I was swamped in seemed to drain out of me, to be replaced by something else. I didn't mind. The force of love I suddenly felt for my comrade nearly bowled me over. My heart was being overloaded with feelings I knew of before.

Never this strong.

I wanted to heal him when he came back with injuries. I wanted to envelope him in my arms and never let go. I wanted to ruffle his hair and memorize every silky strand. I wanted to drown Relena.

I wanted to kill anyone who hurt him.

I felt like I could float, like I could face three squads of Ozzies and come back home in time for breakfast. Heero was looking at me with that gentle look and his mouth was twitched upwards. Lucky that I was so high on happiness. If I wasn't, I think that the shock would have killed me.

I think I know what this means.

Me, the braided fool whose mouth only stops running to drink, in love with him, the anti-social soldier who hasn't said more than three consecutive words to any one outside of his job. And "I will kill you" doesn't count. My mouth hurt because of the ten million watt smiles I had been wearing.

Then completely out of the blue, I blurted out, "I like you Heero."

Well, not a good confession exactly. I'll work on that.

Silence settled over us like a heavy blanket. Heero's mouth opened slightly. Maybe he was shocked or surprised, I dunno. But his expression didn't change. "I like you too Duo," he said softly. Well damn, that's nice to know.

You know, I don't think that he knew exactly what I meant. Just another thing to work on.

Yup, just another thing to work on. But this time, this has priority.

* * *

When we went downstairs, I passed by the living room to overhear Quatre talking to Trowa excitably. I peeked through the gap in the door. Quatre had a wide grin on his face, one that rivaled mine, and his eyes sparkled happily. Trowa had a contented look on his face and was nodding to what ever Quatre was saying.

"And then I just felt an _explosion _of feeling coming from Duo and Heero's room. It nearly knocked me out." Quatre patted his chest. "It was amazing. I mean, it can't have just come from _one _person. No one could host so many feelings. I bet that it was both."

"So you think that they've found out?"

Quatre glanced at the doorway and I shrunk back. Shit, I think he saw me.

"No," he said, his eyes still glued at the door. "No, not yet. Duo just has to work on that."

* * *

AN: The End? My friend thinks that I should continue, but I'm not so sure. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary: **Duo realizes that he loves Heero, but all he can do is tell him that he _likes _him. And sing a song.

**Disclaimer: **Gundam Wing does not belong to me. The lyrics of the song don't belong to me either. But I love Shrek.

**AN: **Just taking a break from 'Cold Iron'.

* * *

There was a dark silhouette of a figure sitting on top of a sand dune. The moon was up, shining in all its glory. It lit up the endless dunes, glowing white in the moonshine.

* * *

I shivered in the cold night air, my bangs waving slightly in the soft breeze. I tucked them behind my ears, but it escaped just as quickly. Hmm. Annoying. I tried to take no notice and allowed my hair to dance out of control. It was starting to get a bit chilly now. In fact, I don't even have a clue why the hell I'm out here. Why am I not back inside the mansion, chasing Wufei around, calling him a weak little onna?

I think it finally got to me, how painful this love thing could be.

I turned my gaze slightly to look at the huge building sitting proudly on its hill, glowing with lights from the inside. The welcoming image seemed to wink at me warmly. It was very tempting just to get up, shake the sand off my black trouser and slip back inside. No questions asked. The desert gets very cold at night. I heaved a sigh and turned my face away from the impressive structure and looked out at the vast, empty space before him. Heh...'vast, empty space'...yeah...whatever. I've seen emptiness that's way more overpowering than the desert could ever be. At least you know that the end is somewhere! And that you can breathe. Spending time in space could give you that unsettling feeling in your stomach. Just looking at used to make me hurl. The idea of non-ending space drove many people crazy. Seriously though... am I crazy?

I think that I am balancing on the brink of insanity.

Woo, scary.

I stuck my finger into the sand, feeling the small, _sharp,_ particles settle around it. I aimlessly traced pictures and letters.

D.U.O.

H.E.E.R.O.

I stared at the two names in disbelief before sweeping my hand over the words, erasing them from the sand. What the hell? I think that this is starting to work its way into my thick head. Alright, now I am definitely going completely mad. I raised my head to the sky, counting the endless number of stars that winked at me, almost fondly. Was someone up there on L2 or L4, staring at the sky, also wondering if they were crazy? Jeez, if God promised Abraham the number of his descendants are in the stars, he must be one busy man. I closed my eyes and let myself fall backwards, my back sinking into the ground with a muffled sound.

O-oh shit. Sand is such a _bitch _to get out of hair. I grabbed my braid, saved it from the sand and let my fingers run down my it aimlessly. I plucked a few silky strands out of the rope and let them hang. You know, I seem to be sighing a lot right now. I let the slick strands flow through my fingers.

What? I don't have to be modest about my hair, do I?

Suddenly, I was hit with the sudden urge to undo my braid and free my head from the constant weight. That has to be one of the weirdest things that I have ever wanted to do. My subconscious fought back, logic telling me that more sand would get trapped into it and it will be hell trying to get it back out again. My spontaneous impulses won the internal tug-of-war and my sandy fingers wrapped around the end of the braid and tugged at the piece of leather that held the masses of hair together. Sitting up and placing the hair tie between my teeth, I unbraided my hair carefully, letting the wind claim some of the strands. I shook my head and the chestnut silk floated behind me and waved in the breeze like a satin banner.

Now why the hell did I do that?

I certainly couldn't lie back down again unless I wanted to ensnare the desert's population of tiny scorpions into my hair. The wind whispered behind me, cooling the nape of my neck and my head felt strangely light. Like when I was ballyhooing back inside, earlier on that day.

Back when I licked Heero's nose and sang a song.

I sighed, once again, letting the hair tie fall out of my mouth and on to my lap. Unfortunately, a stray breeze caught it and threw it to another rolling dune. O-oh shit. Dammit, that was my favorite tie! Why the hell? I felt my eyes widen as I watched the small leather lash fly away from me. It was almost invisible against the black sky. A heavy weight settled at the bottom of my stomach. I didn't even see it fall, let alone where. "Shit," I said aloud, my voice sounding empty in the desert. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit." And I was NOT going back to the house with my hair undone. The guys are probably gonna laugh at this. I just can imagine 'fei now.

Even the desert snickered and a gust of cold air breezed past me. I heard the stars laughing and humming with silent energy. I brought his knees up to his chest and felt the tugging of my hair as it swept into another direction when the winds changed. Heh, kinda like the sails of a ship. Except I dunno where I wanna go and my compass doesn't point north. The whispers started again and the cold started to bully me. I shivered slightly and reached back, draping my hair back around my neck like a scarf. "Damn," I whispered. "I really am crazy. The desert's talkin' to me."

How does one know if they are crazy? I suppose denial is the first sign...

Sand blew into my eyes and mouth, making me splutter. "Aw man!" I shouted to the sky, as some more sand blinded me. Heh, next time I go on a mission, I should bring some sand with me. Handy for throwing in faces. I cursed some more, before (wisely) burying my face into my arms. "Fucking hell..." God, I had to stop myself from clawing at the grains lodged in my eyes and forced myself to blink repeatably. "Stupid, fucking desert," I muttered. "What the hell does Quatre see here?"

"So what are you doing here?"

Oh shit, someone crept on me! Stupid bastard. I turned around and saw Heero standing above me. Cross out the stupid bastard. His arms were folded and he had a small frown on his features. It was to dark too see properly, but I felt Heero's eyes shimmer. He seems to be doing that a lot lately. It was addictive to me. I had started to make a hobby out of drawing that special gleam out those Prussian eyes. What else could I do when I was bored?

I relaxed, squashed any ideas of maiming the 'stupid bastard' and moved to the side, even though there was enough space for the whole Maganac army to join us. Heero sat down slowly, keeping his eyes trained on me the whole time. Humph, what? It's not like I'm gonna jump him or anything. Why so paranoid? He's got better-than-normal-hearing so he would be on the alert the whole time...

_Thump...thump...thump...thump...thump_

Shit, I think he can hear my heart beating. And why was it beating so fast? I should be able to control it, shouldn't I? I should be able to slow it down in order to play dead if needed.

_Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump..._

Was that why he was staring at me? I felt all the blood in my body rush to my face. I'm glad that it's dark, dark is good.

"Duo," he said softly, turning his head so that he could look at me better. His voice was rough and so much more human than when I first shot him...I mean met him. The damn moonlight was letting him see my face properly. I tried to avert my eyes. Away...away from the eyes that I could so quickly drown in. And I'd do it willingly.

Whoa, this is a bit fast. I mean, I just kinda realized today, and already I'm dreaming of eating his face. Eee gahd! What is wrong with you Maxwell, get a grip. I mean, come on, he's not interested. And he has his pretty pink princess all on a platter for him. Why the hell would he like you and stuff. You don't even know if he even knows what the words, "I want a relationship" mean. I doubt that J's training would have covered that. Why would the old coot give a damn about poor Heero's love life. I guess that is why he's so -

"I saw you from the house balcony." He gestured with a vague wave of a hand. Yes Heero, I do know in what general direction Quatre's house is in but please continue. I nodded jerkily. My neck muscles seemed to have gone all stiff. Eek. "Your hair...it was blowing..." He chuckled dryly. "It was strange..."

_Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump... _

I'd be surpirsed if _Relena _didn't hear my heart beating. And she isn't even in the same country.

Heero tore his eyes away from my face and looked up at the moon. "It looked nice," he said, his voice thick. "I never seen it...down." He sounded very confused and out of it, as if he didn't understand what he was doing down here with me. His eyes snapped back to my face, boring holes into my skull as if pleading me to explain what was going through his head. Pfft, as if I should know.

"Thanks Heero," I said quietly, surprised that I could even get the words out. It felt like there was something squeezing my air pipe. He was strangling me with his look. But I'd rather this than have him go away.

_THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP..._

God, he looked so...nice in the moonlight. I felt blessed, very blessed, for once in my life. I inched closer and cautiously leaned against him, my back was against his chest. It couldn't have been called snuggling, but I definitely wasn't _just_ sitting next to him anymore. I felt him stiffen for a second and he took a sharp breath.

I never believed in God, but now I prayed with all my might that he wouldn't push me away. _'Pleaseopleaseoplease...' _

He wrapped a strong arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. My head tilted against his neck. Okay, now this is snuggling. I could feel his heart beating on my back. It seemed so steady and so calm compared to mine. What is he? Superhuman? Gah, I don't care. Just hold me.

"You have sand in your hair," Heero said matter of factly manner. Who cares? I'll get it out later with a two hour shower.

I nodded. "I know," I said. "It's okay."

"Oh." He looked down at me, a small smile tugging at his lips. Why oh why does he have to have such a perfect face? And a body of a god to go along with it. Dammit. This is hard. He might not understand the meaning of _relationship _or _love _or something like that. I don't know what he wants...

Well, I'll just have to teach him.

* * *

We left a while after, since Quatre was calling us inside. I was annoyed with him. But I wasn't pissed for long though.

Heero and I didn't do anything..._important._ But it was a mile stone for me. A definite mile stone for me. I was able to touch him without getting blown up or killed or even glared at. And he could touch my braid without my permission. We just sat there, on the sand dunes, and talked. What about, I can't remember. I think our conversation consisted of tofu and the number four. I never had a better chat though. The guy could have talked about sardines and I would have hung on to his every word.

But you know what? You know what the best thing about that night was?

The next morning, just before we left the mansion due to some sort of mission or party or something. I dunno. But Heero came running up to me. He didn't say anything about last night, though he smiled shyly at me.

"Hey Hee-buddy!" I clapped him on the back and I felt him lean back into my hand. Cool.

"Duo." He grabbed my hand from its place on his spine and he clasped it between his own. He squeezed it once, let go and strode off to join Wufei back inside. Jesus, I am so never gonna wash my hand again.

Anyway, guess what. I uncurled my fingers and in the middle of my palm, lay a slightly sandy leather strip.

* * *

A.N: Hoo boy.

**EDIT**I went through the story to edit it and I found _too_ many mistakes. (Shakes head) Dear God. But thanks to **Ffpanda** for pointing it out to me. The mistakes were for two reasons.

1. I had first written it in third person P.O.V but I realized that if it were from Duo's P.O.V then it would be better. So I had to rewrite the whole thing, changing _he_ to _I_ etc.

2. I wrote it in a program called _Notebook_ and I'm still getting used to it. It is so much better than Word, but I still need to work on it. Anyway, review responses will soon be found on my profile page.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

**Summary: **Duo realizes that he loves Heero, but all he can do is tell him that he _likes _him. And sing a song.

**Disclaimer: **Gundam Wing does not belong to me. The lyrics of the song don't belong to me either. But I love Shrek.

**AN: **Just read. Mallorca tomorrow! **EDIT: **Just got back from Mallorca, and I am totally unsatisfied with this chapter. I added more detail and more words and more stuff. Hope you enjoy. Plus, I'm a bit strapped for ideas for chappie four…

Oh yeah, and to hell with the new rule about review responses. They are down at the bottom of the fic.

**WARNING**: Nits, head lice and eggs. Don't read if you're eating. (That means you, **keiichisei**)

* * *

I now, absolutely, fucking hate the fucking mall.

What?

Duo, what fucking obscene language! How fucking dare you! Well, you'd be cursing like a whole shipload of sailors if you were fucking going through the same fucking thing that I was fucking going through. I mean, it was so fucking stupid that I can't believe that I didn't fucking see it. Or them if you prefer.

Not even my snuggle with Heero could make up for this. Nope, not one bit!

We had to stop at this giant mega-mall for a while as we needed to stock up on a few things for the new safe house, which was far away from the beloved desert. I'll have to convince Quat to let us stay there again sometime. Memories you know?

Anyway, while Quatre and Heero were in the supermarket, Trowa in the hardware store and Wufei in the book shop, I was having the time of my life in the sweetshop. Well, I didn't have any money to spend, since the guys confiscated all my money so that I had no chance whatsoever of getting hyper. It didn't matter, since half the fun is _looking _at all the candy. As I was pouring over the huge variety of jellybeans, I noticed the most _disgusting _little kid next to me, scratching his armpit. You know that Comic Book Guy and that Barney Gumble person in the Simpsons? Yeah, he was like a mixture of the two and thirty years younger. And he was stuffing himself full of cotton candy. God, it was nasty.

I held my breath, kinda inched away from the kid and then ran as fast as I could back into Heero's arms, who was standing in a queue with a basket full of veggies. I literally jumped on him, shrieking happily, and made him drop the basket. I remember that surprised look on his face and could see that his arms were nearly bursting with self restraint. I guess he really wanted to shoot the 'maniac who _may_ have been attacking him.' And that maniac was me. Just to assure him that I wasn't a homicidal attacker, I plonked a wet kiss on his nose. "Hee-chan!" I chirped. I nearly gave poor Q-ball a heart attack along with the other ladies who were standing in the line. To my delight, Heero just put me down and whacked me on the head. The bastard even made me say sorry to Quatre, which I did so without any hesitation. But we picked up Tro and 'Fei and went home with no other thoughts of the kid that seemed intent on attracting the world's population of flies.

* * *

Well, a month later, I was kinda forced to think about him. Quatre and Trowa were out, working as undercover students in a boarding school thirty miles away from our new safehouse. Wufei was searching an OZ base, looking for information on their new mobile suits. Heero was downstairs, letting precious moments of his life dwiddle away on his laptop. And I, I was pacing the bathroom, my hands in my unbound hair. I felt like tearing it out in my frustration and anger. I was so annoyed. You wanna know why?

I, Duo Maxwell, was now hosting a whole colony of fucking _head lice. _

That's right, caught from mister 'I'm so unhygenic that I'm not allowed on a plane' himself. And it is gonna be absolute hell getting the bastards out of my hair. I mean, a month I've had them on my head and I didn't even realize. The itching didn't even start until a few days ago and I just thought that it was a bad case of dandruff. But I swear that I can feel them scuttling all over my scalp, and I don't have enough hands to scratch. Plus, I don't like the idea of having a bunch of dead lice pieces stuck under my nails. Eugh. Mental calculation. It takes about a week for the eggs to hatch and the mama louse lays three or four eggs per day and the life span is about thirty days...

Shit, that's a lot of lice and a lot of eggs.

And I don't even know if I got just one louse or a whole army of nits from cotton candy boy! Shit, I need to scratch again. And I've probably left eggs all over the place. I'm gonna have to clean out Deathscythe, clean out the sofas, clean out my bed, clean out everything. Aw, and all my clothes too. This is gonna take ages.

I stopped pacing and decided that the only way to get them out of my hair was to declare war on their kind. Kneeling down on my knees, I rummaged around in the dreaded cupboard underneath the sink, searching for the nit comb and the lice shampoo. I bet'cha that it gonna be just my luck the there's not gonna be any around here. As if Quatre gets lice!

Alright, found a white nit comb and an old looking bottle of pediculiced. It was well past its sell by date but maybe that would just make it more toxic. No, wait. But that would probably make all my hair shrivel up and die. Not a good idea. Fine then, no killer shampoo. I'll just have to get them all out manually. Thank God that there are instructions with this comb. Okay, the steps to removing lice. I read aloud from the small, thin piece of paper.

_"Step one, remove articles of clothing to prevent lice from clinging on to clothing." _

Fine then. I stripped down to my boxers. Black silk. Yeah, I know.

_"Step two, make sure that you have bobby pins for long hair, nit comb, towel to place around your shoulders, box of facial tissue and a bottle of olive oil."_

_'Right,' _I couldn't help but think. Now why the hell did they tell me this after I took all my clothes off? Honestly, you'd think that they _want _you to look stupid. Well, pins, comb, tissue and towels were easily obtainable. I'm in a bathroom after all. It was the oil from the kitchen that I needed. Aw shit, I do NOT want Heero to see me like this, much less catch any of the beasts.

Still, I had to do what I had to do. I stuck my head out of the bathroom door and hollered as loud as I could, "HEERO!" Wow, I kinda sound like Relena. (Heaven forbid!) I must have sounded really panicked because my hero (geddit?) came racing up the stairs, his gun in hand. I slammed the bathroom door before he could get in and see what a state I was in.

"Duo!" He started rapping on the door. He actually sounded worried. Aw. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I squeaked from behind my barrier. "Can you just get me some olive oil from downstairs? Please?" I could just imagine the look on Heero's face. I'm guessing that he looked frightened for my sanity and disgruntled for making him run up here. Tough, the penguins stole my sanity years ago. I heard a grunt, which hopefully meant _'Yes Duo, I'll get the blasted olive oil for you.' _His footsteps disappeared around the corner and down the stairs. If I listened carefully, I could hear him pottering around the kitchen. Five minutes later and he was trudging back up, hopefully with a bottle in his hand.

"I got your oil," he said. Wow, he sounded so...husky. It made my arms wobble and something warm flitted around in my stomach. Ick, where did that come from? I quickly opened the door, shot my arm out, grabbed the bottle and promptly slammed the door again. Heero didn't even see my face. Well, I got my oil now and that's all that matters. "Duo!" He sounded really concerned now and slightly surprised. After all, I did just shut the door in his face. Aww, Hee-chan. "What are you doing?" he demanded. Don't ask me, I don't know.

"It doesn't matter," I said, pressing my face against the door. "It's okay now. You just go down and work again." I hoped I sounded soothing, to lull him into a false sense of security and make him go downstairs and believe everything was alright. He didn't move. Stubborn ass. Well fine then. He can just stay outside and sit there. I'm not saying anything.

_"Cover the hair with the oil. This prevent tangling and allows the comb to brush through easily."_

Makes sense to me. I think I'll need to use the whole bottle and try to explain to Quatre why there isn't any left for him to dip his bread in. Hopefully it isn't _too _expensive. I did what the paper told me too and coveredmy hair with the stuff. Olive oil feels really strange on your fingers. It's all warm and thick and weird. Well, my hair looked like it was in a good need of a wash (It was shinier than Wufei's. And that is one big thing.) and my head was almost bending over with the weight of the drenched hair .

_"Separate the hair into sections, so that the lice is easily seen."_

Hoo boy, I think that I'm supposed to be doing this with a partner. Oh dammit. Well, I think that I can get on easily enough. I just have to make sure that I don't miss anything. I mean, I just got to comb through my hair. How hard can it be?

* * *

Fine then, it's very hard. And very disgusting. You know, I ran that comb down the entire length of _one _lock of my hair and I nearly threw up at the sight of it. You know when you're walking in the country side or something, and you come across a dead bird or a badger corpse? And it is being swarmed with ants and who knows what else? And the bugs are crawling in and out of the eye sockets and the ribs? Yeah, the comb was like that. It looked like it was _wriggling_. I nearly dropped it and I had to suppress a shriek. It felt like the comb was _alive_. A little gasp escaped from my mouth and instantly, Heero was on the alert.

"Duo!" He banged on the door. I guess he thought that I was cutting myself or something kooky like that. Hah! Like I would. "Let me in!" Shit! When he wants in, he gets in. Oh god, Heero. Fine then, but he won't come in without protection.

"Fine," I shouted, holding the comb at arms length and shoving it underneath a running tap. With grim satisfaction, I watched all the little buggers get washed away down the drain. "But make sure you have a hat on or something." There was a confused silence. Oh wait, shit. I own all the baseball caps in this household and if Heero put one on, then he'll get infected. And no one else has any protective headgear... "Oh wait, scratch that!" I yelled, thinking quickly. "Put your...put your space helmet on!" The silenced grew more confused. That was so not one of my best ideas. "Look Hee-chan, just do it. Please! Then you can come in." I heard him scramble to find his helmet. Wow, my pleading must have a way with him. He got back in about ten seconds flat.

"Yes?" he asked, his voice muffled by the helmet.

I opened the door slowly and let him in. He looked very bewildered and worried and he must have been wondering what the hell I was doing, sitting in the bathroom, in nothing but my boxers, my hair covered in oil and a very anguished look on my face. "Heero," I nearly sobbed. "I've got nits."

* * *

I can't believe it. I won't believe it. The bastard _laughed. _He laughed for god's sake, he laughed! Well, it was more of a sadistic chuckle, but it was still a laugh! "Is that it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. I nodded meekly. He looked over me for a moment, took the comb from my limp fingers and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. And he motioned for me to sit between his legs.

"What?" I asked warily. If this was some kind of joke then I swear I'll kill him. I've got lice, give me a break.

"I'll help you. Sit here." He made a beckoning action with his fingers. Well, I for one, didn't refuse.

So I did. I settled back against his legs, rubbing my back against his calves. I didn't like this, since I couldn't see what he was doing. He gently, ever so gently, parted my hair with delicate hands. I froze. _'Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod...' _my mind started to babble numbly. I was too shocked to move, to stop him. It was one thing for him to hold my braid, when it was in its bound state. But it was entirely different thing for him to _brush_ it. _'Getoutgetoutgetoutgetout...'_ No one brushes my hair. No one but me.

But it felt so incredibly _intimate, _with my back pressing against his legs and his long fingers dragging the comb through my oily hair, that I couldn't bear to ask him to stop. Should I push him away? I wanted him away, but then again, I didn't. I wanted to get those fingers which weren't _mine_ out of my hair. But it was _Heero _after allHe's different.

Heero pulled the comb out, and washed it underneath the tap and showed me all the lice being forced into the drain. I could only watch quietly. He would then start brushing my hair gently again, making my scalp tingle. He ran the comb over the sore and itchy parts of my head, bringing a feeling of..._non itchyness _over my skin. I sat still for all of it, savoring the feeling. I suppose that I would gladly have nits for the rest of my life if it meant going through this every night.

He went through the whole scalp in about half an hour, that's how efficient he was. Sourly, I began to stand up, thinking that it was over. Heero pushed me back down, clamping his legs against my shoulders.

"What about the eggs?" he asked, his eyes twinkling dimly behind his dark visor.

I turned around and asked in what I thought was a bemused voice, "What eggs?" Heero took a strand, picked something out and showed it to me. It was a tiny, grey egg that looked almost identical to dandruff. That's an egg? That's what's been causing all this? God. It was smaller than a pin head or a full stop for god's sake, and there had to be millions of them on my scalp. Did he really mean to pick them all out? Heero carefully maneuvered the egg, so it was on his fingernail and he crushed it. Just like that. Yeah, it looked like he was going to pick them all out.

I think that it took about five hours. Five hours for him to locate all the eggs in my hair and crush them one by one. They made a soft snapping sound, like when you clip your fingernails. But for me, it felt like fifteen minutes. And fifteen minutes wasn't long enough for me. I closed my eyes and leant my head back again his legs, making it harder for him to look. But it didn't matter, he told me that all the eggs that were about one centimeter away from the scalp were either dead or hatched. So it didn't matter. I could feel his fingers softly probing my head and it seems like he was everywhere at the same time. No part of my head felt untouched.

Heero worked in a silence that was only punctured by the soft snapping of the eggs between his fingers. But I could feel an almost positive buzz coming from him. Did that mean that he actually _liked _painstakingly going through my hair and picking out all the bugs? Did it mean that he enjoyed this? I certainly did. I wanted to turn and look, see whether he had that unmistakable light in his eyes, which appeared when he was genuinely happy. I've seen it several time now. I want to see it again.

He finally finished and nudged my head gently with his knee. I guess we were done. I stood up shakily, my legs wobbling from sitting down for so long and I fell over. Right into Heero. He caught me quickly, but I saw a small blush inside his helmet. After all, I was still half naked. I leaned forward for a moment and then stepped back reluctantly. As I picked up my shirt from the floor, he said to me,

"You know that you should do that for three days after the first time. Just in case I missed any."

Hoo boy. I'm looking forward to the next three days. Oh yeah, and stinky kid...thanks.

* * *

**Review Responses **(Oldest to Newest)

Kira May Maxwell – Well, looks like I did decide to continue. And update COLD IRON while I was at it.

FFPanda – (_First review) _Glad that you found it funny. I really meant it to only be a one shot you know… (_Second review) _Thanks for those pointers. I think I might rewrite chapter 2 though. Just to give it more body. _(Third Review) _Well, I didn't want it to gross out people. Maybe I just have a stronger sickness tolerance than some people. O.O. I dunno.

Lildevil666 – Well…I could. But then my friend would hate me. (Sigh) The things I do for love.

Elithil – Aww, thank you. I hope you had fun looking through my other stories.

Smoogee – Heh hey! Same name! Coolness! Anyway, I did continue…so savy?

Serenity Maxwell – (_First Review)_Yeah, but I'm a bit strapped for ideas…(Shifts eyes to the side.) Any ideas for future chappies will be helpful…_(Second Review) _Soon is more to come!

Angel Reid . Tobias Dominick – Well I did! Pat on the back for me! BTW thanks for adding me to your faves!

Keiichisei – _(First review) _Hope you enjoy! _(Second review) _Sorry! I put a warning now…BTW School doesn't start until the 6th of September for me…so I haven't a clue what you're on about….

HeeroDuo1x2x1 – (_First review) _Thanks for the cookies, but I'm gaining weight. (Looks down at bulging stomach.) Oh well. (_Second Review) _Well, it is an interesting thought. My bro got it and I had to make sure that I didn't get very close to him…But I think I'll do something when Duo gets a grey hair completely out of the blue and then freaks out.

Essie – Where the hell are yooouu? I need someone civilized to talk to on the phone. Who doesn't mind me blabbering on and on about Harry Potter or Gundam Wing.

Itasuko-chan – (_First Review) _THANK…YOU!_(Second Review)_ Finally! Someone who doesn't find it sick.

Max-4-ever – (_First review) _Well, it seems that it is no longer a one shot…thank you for your praise!_ (Second Review)_ I'll do my best!

Atreya-chan – You think? I dunno…I thought that I was taking it too fast. Hmmm.

Duet - Of course! I nearly went crazy while I was in Mallorca because I couldn't write anymore. And my notebook kept getting wet at the pool.

MegaTokyo Seraphim – Thank you! I like the mental image of a half naked Duo sitting infront of a Heero with a space helmet on. Or maybe I'm just weird.

BlackRain88 – Thank you! I had to change so much in chapter 2 because it wasn't in Duo's POV to start with.

Mayfaire – Thank you for your enthusiasm! I guess that they haven't really admitted it yet, but they're getting there…officially.

Noroi-Inu – Puppy eyes don't affect me. But thanks for the praise and I'll come up with something soon.

Forever-FFN - Thanks! I don't really have a firm plot in mind. I guess the story's main point of existence is so that I have something else to work on. But ideas are welcome!

To-think-of-a-nice-name – Geez, your name is a mouthful! But extremely witty. I'll update as soon as possible. As soon as my muse gets back from Mallorca. I left him there by accident…


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary: **Duo realizes that he loves Heero, but all he can do is tell him that he likes him. Short get together fic. Slash. 1x2. Fluff. Rated for language. Duo's mouth!

**Disclaimer: **GW does not belong to me…sniff. I should make a poem of somesort to say that.

**AN**: I'm back, believe it or not. And also, I managed to finish INAH while I was away! There are six chapters in all, so I have two more to upload. Plus, I'm writing an epilogue while I'm at it! Wow. But this has **not** been betad since she's on holiday.

* * *

Chapter 4

Schmoogy

* * *

Heero managed to rid my hair of the nasty little beasts. He kept true to his word , and for the next three days, we spent time inside the bathroom. Me in my unbound hair and boxers and Heero in his space helmet. I cheerfully offered to disinfect my black trucker hat and to let him use that instead, but he refused. Jeez, how weird is that guy? Or maybe he just didn't want his hair to smell like rat poison.

He picked out any eggs that he missed the first time and trapped any bugs inside the comb. The second cleansing went smoothly and without a hitch, his gentle fingers probing my skull and softly pulling at the roots of my hair. Who needs Thai massage when you could have a nit purging?

It was over far too soon for me.

He seemed to take his time. If I was crazy, I'd think that he was actually _savoring _this.

But then again, that's a crazy thought.

I'm sure that there was practically nothing left in my hair, not with the five hour searching he had done the day before. I will never understand him. Not that I'm complaining though.

But the third and final cleansing...

* * *

Heero was already in bathroom, sitting on the ledge of the bath, comb and towel in hand and helmet on his head. I pulled my shirt over my head and flung it to only God knows where. There was a soft _thump _as it hit something, hopefully inexpensive. I was about to unbuckle my belt and drop my jeans, but hesitated for a second. Why would I need to take them off since all the nits were out? Shrugging I kept the trousers and stalked into the bathroom, my fingers combing through my hair to unravel the braid.

Heero's eyes flicked to my legs for an instant, but then back to my face. Weird.

"Ready Hee-chan?" I asked, plonking my ass down on to the floor. I heard a grunt from behind, which in Heero language meant: Affirmative. He parted my hair and started carefully combing through the locks. I sighed happily and leaned back, so my back was pushing into his strong legs. My hair spread all over his knees like a blanket. "By the way, thanks for doing this man," I added, closing my eyes.

"What?"

"I mean, even _I _don't want to go through my hair to pick out dead bugs or anything. And you didn't have to do this for me. It must be disgusting."

Heero's fingers paused for a second, and I sensed him move his head slightly. "I don't find it disgusting," he said, sounding surprised. He started to pull at my hair again.

"No really," I said, turning around. "I'm really grateful for this. I don't think that I could have done this myself. And no one else would have done it. Quatre would have sent me to the doctors, Trowa would have sent me to Quatre and Wufei would just call me weak for catching the bastards in the first place." I grinned, sending Heero a one-million watt smile. "So you're like the only person who would do this." I contemplated for a second. Well, maybe aside from Sally Po, but she doesn't count. "Besides, I think that you're the only one who could actually touch my hair without me freaking out..."

Heero suddenly froze, his fingers still again. I raised my chin so that I was staring at him over my forehead. "Heero?" I asked, hoping that nothing was wrong.

"Nothing," he said, sounding nonplussed. There was a strange squeaky tone to his voice and I swear that his helmet visor had started to steam up.

I persisted in my question. "Aw come on, what's wrong?"

His fingers left my scalp and I frowned at the loss. I gave him a begging look without realizing it. He sort of pushed me off his legs and stood up quickly, pulling off his helmet with a shake of his head and causing his soft hair to fly around his face.

I stared.

When he looked at me again, I could see a tint of red coloring his cheeks. His eyes didn't meet mine. "I need to finish a report," he said, looking purposely away. "I think I got everything out of your hair." Before I could answer, he left the bathroom. I was still sitting on the tiled floor, my hair spilling around me and what I guessed was a highly bemused look on my face.

I was, well, puzzled to say the least. Why did he just _leave _like that? Was it something I said? I guess he did get everything out of my hair, so there wasn't really any reason to stay. I couldn't help but feel a little hurt. He could have at least...erm...I don't know. But I wish that he didn't just brushme off like that. I stared at the door for a few seconds, before re-braiding my hair slowly and beginning to fasten it with my ever handy leather strap.

Wait...leather strap...I stopped and gazed at the hair tie sitting in the middle of my palm. I remembered the look on Heero's face before he rushed out of the door. His eyes were full of confusion and something else. His cheeks were cherry red.

This all feels very familiar, but I just can't remember.

I tied my hair up and left, picking my shirt up from the light shade that it had so unceremoniously landed on.

* * *

For the rest of the day, I didn't see Heero at all. I caught sight of him turning the corner of a hallway, and leaving a room when I entered through another door. It was really, very odd. I looked all over for him, but he seemed to always be ahead of me and evaded my attempts to catch him. Why exactly I wanted to catch him, I did not know. I guess it was like my odd little habit of trying to make him smile.

Don't think that I've fallen out of love with him. Not for one second. But spending three days in his presence, half naked with my hair unbound has kind of made me...get used to him. I'm still in awe and all, but now I don't stutter like a school girl whenever he touches me.

But his running away was driving me crazy.

Wufei had gotten back that evening and Trowa and Quatre were due back tomorrow. I volunteered to make dinner that night and forced Wufei to go and fetch Heero, wherever he was.

I laid the plates out on the table as both Heero and Wufei stalked into the dining room. Heero still had his eyes on the floor and was refusing to look at me. Wufei was still tired from his mission, so he just dropped into the chair I pulled out for him and didn't notice Heero's reluctance to raise his eyes. I smiled at him half heartedly and sat down.

Dinner was, for once, a silent affair. I felt compelled to be quiet, not wanting to say anything to Heero, which was weird seeing as I was chasing him around the house all day. Usually, I'd be firing questions at the two of them, asking Wu-man how his mission went, whether he had any odd dreams and what difficulties he had. I'd ask Heero whether anything weird happened that day. Then I'd proceed to tell them about my day, about the large spider that I found in the shower, about the raisins I found in the fridge and the strangely shaped tree in the forest.

But not tonight. Tonight, I picked at my food and didn't even comment on how rubbery my noodles were. Tonight, Heero didn't even acknowledge me at all. I almost gave him a despairing look. I felt very dejected. The bastard.

Even though Wufei was tired, he was alert enough to know that something was off. He slammed down his cutlery with a clatter. "What is wrong with you?" he said, eyeing me in particular. "Why aren't you chatting about the obscenities that you came across today or something? I'd usually welcome the silence, but now this is just unnerving."

I gave him a tired smile. "Sorry 'fei. I'm just a little wiped out from stuff. Running around and all. Didn't mean to freak you out." That was true. I _had_ been running around after Heero.

Wufei looked at me suspiciously, before nodding and eating again. I noticed him sneak a look at Heero though, but apparently he didn't see anything of importance.

I finished my meal quickly and pushed my knife and fork together. I excused myself, dropping my plate off in the kitchen. "I'm turning in," I called, hoping that neither would bother me in my room. I didn't get an answer, but as I walked up the stairs, I heard Wufei ask Heero sharply, "What's wrong?" I sighed. I knew that he didn't believe me. And I highly doubt that he's gonna get a straight answer out of soldier boy.

I flopped down on to my bed, my eyes on the ceiling. Why was Heero avoiding me? Did I say something wrong earlier on in the bathroom? I groaned, placing an arm over my eyes. What exactly did I say? I don't recall saying anything that could be considered offensive. But I do that a lot without realizing. Maybe I said something that hurt him. But usually he'd just brush it off and call me a baka. Mind you, he hasn't said the b-word in several days. Weird...

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, I was sitting up in bed, my heart pounding and my arms shaking. My bed sheets were drenched with sweat and my pillows seemed to have managed to find their way to the other side of the room. My mouth was open and I heard a desperate yell. I guess it was mine. _'Shit,' _I thought, as I struggled to control my breathing. _'I just woke up everyone else.' _ Great, Heero is gonna be so pissed off with me. Wufei's room is kind of far away from mine, so I bet that he didn't hear...

I buried my head in my hands._ 'No no no no...'_ I couldn't even remember what had caused me to wake up so violently. I shivered as a draft swept over my sweat soaked skin and pulled the blanket closer to me.

My door opened silently and I saw a dark figure step inside. I could also see that the dark figure had a dark gun in hand. I tensed and began to reach for my own gun under the mattress.

"Duo?"

It was just Heero. He moved into a patch of moonlight that was pouring through my window. I could see concern etched upon his features. I stared at him.

And the dam broke. My head fell forward and I felt my shoulders begin to shake. A tear rolled down my nose. Why was I crying? Why _was _I crying?

A pair of strong arms wrapped around my frame and I stiffened suddenly. Heero had sat down on my bed without me realizing. I raised tearful eyes and looked at him confused. Why was he sitting down? Why was he hugging me? Why was he sending me mixed signals! Running away and then hugging me...

"It's okay..." he whispered into my ear and I felt his hot breath tickle my skin. He rubbed small circles into my back. My tears subsided quickly and my sobs quietened. He didn't ask me anything, no questions about the nightmare, no scolding me for waking him up at this obscene hour. He just rocked me until I nearly fell asleep again.

Then, completely out of the blue, he said, "I'm sorry. I just don't understand...this." He didn't need to elaborate. With that, he untangled his arms from around me and left quietly. I didn't mind, although I mourned the loss of warmth. He said what I wanted to hear.

As I snuggled down into my covers, I realized something and a small gasp escaped my mouth.

I didn't get changed into my bedclothes before I fell asleep, nor did I remember tucking myself in...

A content smile spread over my face as I heard the door shut softly.

* * *

**AN: **I'll put the next chapter up tomorrow. Or should I wait for the next day…or the next day…or the next day… 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary: ** Duo realizes that he loves Heero, but all he can do is tell him that he likes him. Short get together fic. Slash. 1x2. Fluff. Rated for language. Duo's mouth!

**Disclaimer: **I have come up with a poem!

Schmoogy owns nothing,

So run along and sue someone else.

(like McDonalds)

Mwahahahahahahahah!

**AN:** Well…here it is! Slightly late, but still today. And edited by moi, so it might be still a bit weird. Enjoy! One more chappie till the end.

* * *

Heero stopped hiding from me the very next day. Wufei even noticed and nodded with approval as I happily chatted away at breakfast. Though I guess that he was regretting his wish to hear my voice. By the end of the morning he almost held me at gunpoint, kindly requesting me to 'hold my tongue' as he so aptly put it. Well, I can't help it if my mouth runs faster than my brain.

But I don't really mind the fact that Wufei is harboring homicidal ideas in that pretty head of his. What I was so happy about was that Heero's eyes were lighting up like a lantern every time I talked to him. Drawing an eye-smile out of him was now almost too easy. I guess that he felt bad about the night before and decided to spoil me with his happy twinkles.

I suppose my next step is a mouth-smile. Or a laugh. Not the sadistic snicker that I heard in the bathroom when he first heard about the nits, but a full out, belly-shaking laugh.

I try to help him see the lighter things of life, but it is a little hard. Just a little bit.

My chance came soon enough. Quatre and Trowa arrived back at the safe house, in good spirits and in good health. The mission was a success and it went smoothly without any hitches. Although they _were _attacked at one point in their dormitories. No, not by trained OZ soldiers but by, scary, not trained, rabid _fangirls. _Yes, it seemed that there was yet another fanclub for the both of them, and the girls had attempted to get strands of Quat and Tro's hair for voodoo or something. I still shiver at the thought.

They came back in one piece, although a few pieces of their underwear was missing. But I'm sure that Wufei's gonna tell the both of them about the little spat Hee-chan and I had. Well...I wouldn't say that it was a spat...more of a misunderstanding. I don't even understand it yet. But all in due time.

Soldier boy and I were briefed for an undercover mission at a boarding school about one hundred fifty miles away from the safe house. We had to leave immediately after our briefing so I packed quickly and left with Heero to the school. Heero seemed indifferent to the fact that we were leaving from our safe house into literal hell.

St. Accappilla is a mixed gender school, ranging from ages eleven to eighteen. It has pleasant grounds, excellent sporting facilities and about five hundred pupils in all. We were stationed there due to the OZ base that was situated quite near by. All the details of the mission were lost on me, but Heero will fill me in later.

At the word _mixed _and _gender_, I felt a deep fear move throughout my whole body. It looked like it was gonna be Heero and me against the whole of the female population of St. Accappilla. I know that I'm considered cute seeing as most girls seem to squeal as soon as they catch sight of me (trust me, I _know) _and Heero's so good looking that they'd gladly ditch any attachment they were hanging on to at that moment for him.

But why do I doubt that any fangirl could get within a mile of him without being on the receiving end of his glare? I guess that I'll just have to stick with him and they'll leave me alone.

We arrived on a Tuesday and unpacked in our shared dorm. It looked like it was just Hee-chan and me. I, for one, was very glad that we were in a double room, compared to the seven bed rooms that were just across the hallway. The decor was dire, white walls everywhere and horrifying flowery curtains. There was a whole layer of gum underneath the lame excuse of a desk they had furnished our room with. Typical pinewood bunk-beds were against the cardboard thin wall. I could already hear the heavy rock music blaring from next door.

I sighed. It was going to be a long five days. I didn't mind though. I'd suffer it all for Heero. I quickly claimed the top bunk before anyone could protest and dumped my stuff on top. The bed boards creaked threateningly. I winced.

"Are you sure about the top bunk?" I heard Heero ask from behind me. "You're heavier than me."

Shows what he knows. I snorted. "I'm two kilos lighter than you are, jackass." I turned to face him with raised eyebrows and hands on my hips. "So, excuse me for being obese," I replied, punching him jokingly on the arm. Amazingly, he didn't glare at me for attacking him in any way. Odd, I know that I can snuggle with him, but I still get a bit worried that he might crack from all the touchy feely stuff I've been putting him through. I remembered how the first time Quatre had touched him on the shoulder, Heero had freaked and nearly broke his wrist.

Heero wasn't as human then as he is now.

As I thought of this, I smiled warmly at him, still awed at the amount of love that I felt run through my whole being whenever I looked at him. I can't believe that I only realized my feelings about a month ago. It's amazing. My smile almost faded from my face. I'm quite happy right now, thanks to Heero's ever-growing empathy and emotion. But I can't help but wonder whether he knows what's going on in my head. And whether he knows what's going on in my heart.

"I'll go get our schedules," he told me, as he left through the whitewashed door. Fine, leave me to do the unpacking. I stuck my tongue out at the closing door. I turned to the small amount of luggage we had and proceeded to stuff articles of clothing into the tiny excuse of a drawer we had been provided with. With my back turned to the door, I didn't see who came in when it opened with a squeak.

"So you're the new kid?" a gruff voice demanded from behind.

I froze for a second, before turning around with an easy grin on my face although I was still tense. "Yeah, and you are?" I challenged.

The muscular blonde kid, man even, was standing against the doorway in a threateningly casual manner. There was a posse of jock look-a-likes surrounding him, like a sea of blue sport jackets labeled with the school emblem; a bull. _'Fitting,' _I thought, as the Leader moved towards me. The sea parted, firing scowls at me. I could almost imagine them cracking knuckles.

The Leader chuckled in what he must have thought was a menacing manner. He was going to warn me of something, perhaps to 'stay off his turf' or to 'keep off his girlfriend' or something.

"My name isn't important," he said, an evil glint appearing in his watery brown eyes. I was struck with the sudden image of mud. "The teach' was all braggin' and stuff about your high marks in the exam."

There was no exam, Heero had just hacked into the network as always and filled in random information. Fake names, fake dates of birth, fake exam results...if I remember correctly, I was 'Luke Barrow' and he was 'Henry Bowdler.' But I digress.

"I want ya to do my work," the Leader said with a dismissive wave of a big hand. "I don't have any time with sports fixtures and parties. I figured that you would be able to do it - "

Wow, he figured? "Sorry," I interrupted, not breaking the eye contact. "I'm a bit busy and, believe it or not, I _do _have a life. So as much as I'd love to do your Chemistry or whatever, no."

He wasn't expecting a comeback from a newbie. I guess he thought that I would be scared, insecure and probably intimidated by the huge mass of bulk in front of me. I guess any normal person would be pissing in the pants at the moment. His heavy set jaw dropped open and he stared at me with a blank face. Obviously the information was taking a while to process in his small hollow head of his. His followers gazed at me like sheep, unsure of what was going on.

I sighed. Did I need to spell it out for him? "Look buddy, I would very much appreciate it if you left. " I made a shooing gesture with my hand, motioning to the door. "You know? Leave as in get out? Understand?"

The giant blinked. He didn't move. I rolled my eyes and leaned against the tiny cupboard that the school had so generously supplied us with. I think that small flick of my eyes suddenly brought him back to life. I guess he finally realized that I was mocking him. Trust me, I don't want any enemies at this point. But if they don't like me, then who am I to stop them from trying to beat me up?

He growled and started moving closer towards me. He prodded his fat finger at my chest. "Listen here retard -"

_Retard_? I nearly fainted from horror. Mind the sarcasm there. Try to keep up.

" - I control this place. And your dorm happens to be at my place. So you better listen up or else. And I don't - like - pansy - boys - not - listening." He emphasized his point with a poke at my chest on every word.

I was about to open my mouth and tell him to go fuck himself when a lovely, familiar voice said clearly, "What's going on here?"

I had to tilt my head to the side, so that I could see past the big Leader. The sea of heads parted again and Heero stepped through, his cold eyes boring into the giant's head. It's nice to see that glare directed at someone I don't like.

I waved a hand happily. "Henry!" I almost crooned. Side stepping the giant, I moved in front of him. Yeah, yeah, don't turn your back on the enemy and what not. But with Heero watching my back, I was ready for anything that life would fire at me. "Henry," I said solemnly, gesturing to the goggle-eyed guy behind me. "This is Ass-wipe. Ass-wipe, this is Henry."

I think Heero could presume from the name that I had so aptly christened, that I didn't really like the guy. Heero looked at him as if he was nothing but a mountain of dung and said with a growl in his throat, "Leave."

Ass-wipe didn't need telling twice. He seemed to shrink and zoomed passed me. His followers scattered like fish. As they raced down the hallway, Ass-wipe yelled back, "Pansy boy!" Then they were gone.

I shook my head at the disappearing crowd and flung my arms around Heero. "Hee-chan!" I garbled. "You saved me!"

Heero didn't shrug my embrace off. "Baka," he said, a warmness in his voice. "You could have gotten rid of them yourself."

I beamed. "I know! But then my Heero in shining armor came and kicked their asses."

His lips twitched at my word play. He didn't say anything, but instead handed me my timetable. To my everlasting joy, we had the same classes every morning until lunchtime.

"Looks like you're stuck with me for Chemistry then," I said, waggling my eyebrows. Chemistry is fun, especially when you know what goes boom and what doesn't. I scanned the rest of the schedule. It looked like he was with me for most of the lessons.

Joy!

The first three days flew by. Lessons, eating, observing the OZ base during the night, and avoiding the rabid fangirls. I won't dwell on that thought too long, due to the fact that I am most probably scarred for life because of scare I got when I was in the shower. No, I will _not_ elaborate.

I didn't ever speak to Ass-wipe again. I caught glimpses of him in the cafeteria and hallways, although his posse seemed a bit smaller than before. He sent a few rather weak glares my way, but they dissolved under the force of Heero's icy looks.

I stuck to Heero like gum. In our classes together, it became obvious to our classmates that 'Luke Barrow and Henry Bowdler' were inseparable. People asked us if we were best friends. I said yes.

And I don't lie.

Before our first classes, I had to explain the concept of being someone's best friend to Heero. It took a while for it to get into that thick head of his, but he nodded understandably and asked if _I_ was his best friend. And somehow, I don't think that he was talking about Henry and Luke.

I was positively floored by the beaming hopeful look that he gave me. My heart melted and my reply came out in a squeak.

"Of course."

I was rewarded with a warm smile.

* * *

**AN**: Yay. I know even though there is no angst, there is only angst in the last chapter. 


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: **Last chapter! Then the epilogue which I'm working on. Then I'll have to edit ALL the chapters of INAH. Oh well. Whoops, forgot to do reader response. Those will go at the bottom. (Yay) So if you reviewed before, then don't forget to check down there.

**Disclaimer: **I am going to use that handy dandy new poem I came up with:

Schmoogy owns nothing,

So run along and sue someone else.

(like McDonalds)

* * *

Classes were all mundane and boring. I knew all of the stuff that they were teaching. Math, sciences, computer technology (Heero rocked in that class.) and, oddly enough, religion. I remembered most of the bible passages that we were meant to study. Poor Heero didn't have a clue.

We were in Health Ed. or something and we were learning about _puberty_ of all things. I mean, come on! I've already been through it, Heero's already been through it and, as I looked around the class, I noticed that most of the girls there were already well endowed and the guys were growing beards.

I think Heero found that _that_ was the most interesting lesson. It was certainly the most informative to him. We watched an old documentary, made for classes like those. Drinking, smoking, peer pressure, drugs, the lot. But what he found the strangest was the way the teens interacted with each other on the film. It kinda ran like this:

"_So_," the girl with heavily caked on make up said, leaning on a flickering lamp post casually. She flicked her blond hair over her shoulder. "_Do you wanna go out?_"

The pierced punk who had been pulling elevator eyes on her, nodded somewhat eagerly and replied with a cracking (puberty! Mwahaha) voice, "_Sure_." And they slunk away, either to the local arcade (which was what the teacher wanted us to think) or to the local dark alley to have some 'fun'.(which was more likely)

I think that some of the more immature boys here are having 'fun' just thinking about it.

Heero had asked me after the class, what the girl had meant by 'going out'. I stared at him for a second and then burst out laughing. I know it was mean, but he had a totally bewildered look on his face.

"Henry," I said, finally managing to block the flow of giggles. "When someone says that, they want to...well..._go out_." It was a tough subject to explain. "People might want to get _involved_ with each other. Y'know, _romantically involved. _And 'going out'...I guess that it's just the test drive. To see if it works."

He had that odd calculating look in his eyes again. I smiled at him, all traces of laughter gone. I wonder if he's getting ideas...

* * *

Both of us were dreading the sports lesson. We were given uniform as always (black spandex and baggy blue tank tops. I would have laughed my head off if it was green. Heero would be in his element.) Of course, as we stepped out onto the playing field, a silence seemed to sweep over the others like a wind. Ogling at Heero's muscles. And maybe mine, but I'm not sure about that. Even the teacher's whistle dropped from his mouth in amazement. I just gave Heero a knowing look.

Unsurprisingly we were chosen pretty quickly for teams. I don't know how it worked out, but we still managed to make it onto the same team.

Soccer. Not my best sport. Not Heero's best sport. But we still kick ass.

They decided to put Heero in goal and I volunteered to switch with him every now and then. "Henry, just stay in there and don't let the ball through," I had told him. It was simple and the opposition didn't have a chance. Heero caught every shot easily and quickly. He didn't even use his hands. His feet were enough. It didn't look like he was showing off, since all his saves seemed easy and it looked as if anyone could have caught it. Unless you count the one where he did something akin to a half flip and caught it between his feet...I dunno.

After half an hour of running up and down the field (I wasn't even breaking a sweat yet) and decided to let Heero have a go with scoring. We were leading (of course) about six to nil. I _could_ have played forward, but I was too busy talking with Heero at the back. We had a nifty shooter anyways. And Heero looked just a teeny bit bored. I was given permission to switch with him.

I stalked over to him and jerked a thumb over my shoulder. "Hey Henry. Do you wanna go out?"

He turned to me with the most surprised look I had ever seen. He stood there, frozen for a several seconds with his mouth slightly open and his eyebrows sky-high. I was feeling a bit puzzled myself with his odd behavior. Did I say something? Did I have something on my face? "Hey? Hee-buddy?" I asked, slightly concerned now.

He jerked back to life. Still staring at me, he nodded readily. His eyes were ablaze with happiness and an incredible smile lit his features. "Sure," he said.

I suppose that he really wanted to get out of that goal.

I grinned back at him, still overwhelmed with the brightness of his smile, and pushed passed him. I started to point out the boundaries of where he could go as a forward and where he couldn't. And that tackling the goalie was a bad idea. As I babbled on, the bewildered look appeared on his face again. I took my place in the goal and noticed that he was still standing there. I flashed a smile at him and pointed out that he was supposed to helping with the goals.

A look of dawning seem to wrack through his whole body. I guess he finally understood what he was supposed to do. As he started running down the pitch, I saw him turn back to look at me.

His eyes were dead.

My own smile faded from my face, to be replaced with a look of confused horror. What had I said now?

* * *

It came to me later on that night.

Heero didn't say anything to me at all after that sports lesson. I was hit with a sudden deja vu of after the nit thing. Except that he didn't have a chance to run away. I was torn. Guilt about something that I did not know kept on pressing down on my head. I kept trying to talk to him, but the buzz just wasn't there. He turned away, looked at me with blank eyes and tortured me from inside. People _noticed_ for God's sake. They kept coming up to me and asking if 'Henry and Luke' were alright. I nodded my head numbly and mumbled some sort of affirmative. No one approached Heero.

And the worst thing is, I didn't know what I had done.

We were separated from lunch onwards and he didn't come back to the dorm until late at night and I was already nearly asleep. I noticed him come in out of the corner of my eye. He retired to the bottom bunk pretty quickly. I sighed and turned over, hearing the bed boards sigh with me. I tossed and turned, not being able to get to sleep. The dead look on Heero's face haunted me, popping up in my darkened vision. It seemed that I had a picture of it printed on the insides of my eyelids. I couldn't get it out of my head. I was nearly reduced to tears and the cause of it all slept ignorantly below me. I scowled ferociously. _'Why?' _I questioned. _'I guess I am in love.' _Nothing should get me this worked up.

I finally drifted off into a fitful sleep and my dreams were woven with images of footballs and a nose piercing. And then words, which I heard ever so clearly, "_Do you wanna go out?" _My own face was smirking back at me.

I woke up, mouthing the words, "Oh my God." The darkness of the room seemed more threatening and oppressing than ever.

What had I done? The guilt and the pain crushed me. How could I have done that? I was such an idiot, explaining to him about the significance of that particular phrase. And then I used it, just as common wording. He probably thought that I was mocking him, that I was making fun of his ignorance. That I had abused his trust in me. His best friend. No wonder he looked at me like that. I would have felt so betrayed and embarrassed, just by those words. The guilt just kept on piling up.

He had said yes.

That hit me like a ton of bricks and I flopped back onto my mattress, the bedding squeaking noisily. My hand flew to my mouth. He said yes? "Oh my God," I whispered to the air. He said yes! My brain had to repeat that over and over again. _'He said yes...' _ He wanted to go out? With me? But...but...it wasn't possible. I didn't see what he wanted in me. Maybe, he was just being polite...the optimistic side of my mind disagreed passionately. _'No,' _it breathed in my ear. _'He wants to. He wouldn't play around like this.'_ An insane smile stretched at my mouth and the happiness inside filled me, filled my very being.

The question now was,how am I going to fix this? I am, sure as hell, _not _gonna wake him up now. No...he deserves better. He deserves a lot better than me waking him up at three in the morning to make my confession.

* * *

I woke up earlier than him, which was a rare occasion. I had practically breathed in my breakfast and raced off again, determined not to be caught by Heero before class time. It was difficult, as it seemed that he was actually _looking _for me. The roles were revised.

First bell rang. First signal. I was late for my History class, believe or not, and there were no empty spaces near my one and only. Perfect. The class watched me through bored eyes as I made my way to the back of the class. Heero was looking at me curiously. I sent him a small smile and sat down, resting my feet on the table. The teacher was so old, that he didn't even notice and instead droned on, sending his class into a strange trance. Heero was bright awake as usual and I...I was so nervous and anxious that I couldn't even sleep properly. About half way through the lesson, the teacher had his back to the class as he was writing something on the board, I stood up quickly and flicked a tiny piece of paper in Heero's direction. My aim flew true, and the paper landed on his desk, bounced once, and lay still. Heero blinked and cautiously unfolded it, glancing back at me. I sat down, before the teacher could see, and gave Heero the thumbs up.

Heero read the note. I couldn't see his face from where I was sitting. But his whole body tensed and his head jerked back to look at me with wide eyes. I looked calmly back at him, my chest thudding painfully in my chest. Every fibre of my being was stretching, hoping, praying that Heero wouldn't turn away. If he did, the pain would be to much and the rejection would kill me. I felt like there was a ton of water above my head. If Heero refused, the glass would break. The water would suffocate me. If he...accepted, I would fly and breathe easily again.

_Smile if you like me. _

_I'm sorry. And I love you. _

_Will you?_

I waited in painful anticipation. Heero folded the note up and I could see him take a deep breath. He turned around slowly in his seat and honoured me with the most brilliant, incredible, warmest smile I had ever seen. It was brighter than on the football pitch, it was more tender than in the desert and it was all directed at me. The room lit up, students awoke from their doze and the teacher paused in his writing. For me, it was as if the clouds parted and the sun poured in. It was then that Heero started to laugh. In the middle of the lesson. And heads turned to look at the normally stoic boy who was laughing away. It was the richest and most musical sound. His face was screwed up, becoming breathless with laughter. It told me that he loved me back.

I joined him.

The lesson ended with only a slight telling off for that disruption. I didn't care. The teacher collected his things and left. Heero and I looked at each other. "So," I said, my voice nearly cracking with nervousness. "Where do you wanna go?"

"Here."

He pulled me towards him, his arms gently hugging me. His body pressing against mine and the wonderful heat that filled me was exhilarating. I sighed and sagged into his embrace. He rested his chin on my head. "Oh God," I whispered into his neck. "Heero, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it for it to be like that. It was a mistake..." He silenced me with a finger on my lips.

"It's okay," he said, looking happy that I wasn't pushing him away. "Just...how..." He looked at me awkwardly, at my lips in particular, and seemed to shift. His arms grasped me tighter, as if I was going to disappear suddenly. I was crushed tighter into his hold and his limbs seemed to envelope me. Heero's unique scent filled my senses and his soft hair was tickling my face. I pushed away for a second, just to give us some space. Looking at him firmly in the eyes, I said,

"Like this."

My head tilted to the side and inched forward. Heero copied me and moved slowly towards me. My heart was singing in my ears and nervous energy ran through my veins. I felt like my whole being was thudding, threatening to break apart. His eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly, so slightly apart. He moved closer and closer...Our lips touched and pressed together. For a heart stopping moment, I thought that I had died. My head filled with an emptiness, a blissful void and then I was jerked back to happy, happy reality. I had to hold myself back from ravaging him completely, but he was just so...so...words fail me. He didn't know what to do, and in all truth neither did I.

His hand moved from my back to my head, using my hair to tug me closer, pushing my head towards his. We were both liking this. We were liking it a lot. I entwined my fingers in his hair and started stroking his cheek with one hand. Finally, we had to pull apart. Heero's cheeks were flushed and his lips were cherry red. I ran a finger over them. Was this a dream. If it were...I don't think that I'd be able to face Heero whilst I awake again. But the eternal joy that was filling my insides was too vibrant, too _alive_ to be a dream.

His voice was husky when he spoke, sounding eager for more. "Do we have to have a test drive?" he asked, using the same words that I did.

I looked back up at him with a laugh in my eyes. "I don't think so," I said. "We've already had millions of test drives."

He smiled at me, a lovely genuine smile. A warmness flushed through my face and chest. "But," he said, moving back down so that his voice thrummed in my ear. "I still need teaching."

Wha? The awkward rules of dating were no mystery to me. Who's a better teacher than I?

I told him this and he laughed. "Of course," he said afterwards, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Teach me then."

So I did.

* * *

The End

* * *

**AN: **YAAAAY! I HAVE FINISHED! Wow. Well. Epilogue now. Toodles. Then my end of story notes come in. Wow. I've never finished a story like this before.

**GundamPiloit03** – I've continued _and _finished it! Yay.

**Spark of Life** - :_Blinks innocently: _Prussian eyed teen? Where?

**To-thing-of-a-nice-name **– Is everyday soon enough?

**Peanut99** – Silly girl. You've already read the whole story before I even typed it up. :_Huggles:_

**FallenTruth** – (_First Review) _Thank you! I might try something like this again. So keep your eyes open. _(Second Review) _I need a little bit of angst to keep me going. Where's the story if there's no conflitct?

Mari-chan&Hitori-kun – Well, there was no wait. I like blackmail and torture. Sadistic, I know I am. Keiichisei – (_First Review)_ I love that song! And Jennifer Sanders (I think) sings it really well. The original song was by frou frou. :_Shrug:_ I dunno, watch Shrek. _(Second Review) _I love Wufei. He's so overprotective. I made it a job of mine to have each of the pilots talk at least once. _(third review) _It's a bit cliché I'm sure. :_Shrug: _Oh well, it's there now. 

**Serenity Maxwell** – (_First review) _Sorry, the story was already written out and I cannot be bothered to make any changes what so ever. Besides, Heero's a smart boy. And he knows what to do. _(second review) _Heck, it's only one chapter of angst. No biggie. Plus, I'm sure Duo quite likes what happened in the end.

**Nox** – Really? I didn't think that I portrayed him very well…

**HeeroDuo1x2x1 **– Ah! Rabid fan:_Runs away: _Just joking. Thank you for the praise.

**Ffpanda** – (_First review) _Well…yeah. There might be people who like to take…their…time…. Or maybe I'm just sadistic. (_Second Review) _I agree. Mwahahaha.

**Max-4-ever** – Thank you for the cookie. I love cookies. _:Munches on cookie: _

**Camillian** – I love school chapters. They are fun to write. As for angst…:_evil look in eye:_


	7. Epilogue

AN ate my author notes. They're at the bottom. So yeah. Epilogue:

* * *

I sighed contently and leaned closer to Heero, who wrapped a strong arm around me. The desert night sky was a star splattered canvas and was free of clouds. A cool breeze blew by, gently flicking my hair around my face. The desert wasn't in a sadistic mood tonight and instead enjoyed watching me and Heero sit together. The stars laughed quietly, their ringing giggles trilling somewhere in the background. I raised my eyes to the heavens, thanking what ever deity had blessed me with such good fortune. I loved someone, and that someone loved me back. It was amazing. I turned my head to look at his face, his smooth skin bathed in the moonlight. He looked back down at me a warm expression and it took every bit of will power I had not to scream with happiness. I didn't want to ruin the quiet moment we were sharing together. 

A month after we had gotten together, things were indescribable. We were never apart and I couldn't bear to be away from Heero for more than an hour. I followed him constantly, hanging off his frame with my arms draped around his shoulders or my fingers entwined with his. I would follow him into the bathroom if I could, but Heero blushed and swatted me away when I tried.

But it was so much deeper than just hanging around each other. The feeling of inner peace that filled my entire being was astounding and I'm sure that I can be forgiven for wanting to feel it at all times. It was kind of pathetic really, how much I depended on Heero. I realized at the beginning of our relationship, how helpless I felt when he wasn't around. How I felt that I was missing out on the pleasures of life. Even just looking at him while he worked made me happy and looking at his empty chair made me feel almost suicidal. The feelings that I had buried away, not wanting to love anyone since that incident on L2, were now open and raw. I was like a needy pet or animal, desperate for affection and the knowledge that he was still with me.

But if it was hurting me, think about what it was doing to Heero.

It took him a while to adjust to the new environment. He had asked me to teach him how to love and how to be loved back and I never went back on the promise. I was endlessly in some sort of body contact with him, trying to make him comfortable with me, with my affection. When we read together, I would have an arm wrapped around his shoulders. When we ate at dinner, I would punch him lightly, tap him on the shoulder, slap his back to let him know that I was there, that I hadn't run out of love. We haven't actually been on a formal date yet, but there will always be time for that. As soon as he's okay with me glomping him in public.

Don't think that the guys didn't notice. They were overjoyed when we finally told them. Well, Quatre was anyhow. He beamed at us with a huge smile stretching his face and saying that he knew that we would end up together some how. Trowa seemed indifferent, but I know a happy little gleam in the eye when I see one. I get them all the time from the master of poker faces. Wufei 'approved' of our relationship. He was happy and content enough, although he did threaten Hee-chan that if he ever cheated on me, he would end up with a sword sticking out of his ass. Heero threatened him back that if Wufei even dared to consider for a moment that he would ever cheat on me, then he would have yet another hole in his head. (The first from trying to shove the sword up his backside.) I had stared at both of them and cracked up laughing.

My heart is still raw from the amount of feelings that I am still trying to sort out. But it's still beating.

"Duo," Heero said quietly, jolting me back to pleasant, pleasant reality. He slipped my braid through his fingers, stroking it with his thumb.

"Yes?" I replied, tilting my head back. How anyone could keep his eyes of him, I will never understand. I was prepared to be hated by the whole of humanity for being the partner of such a perfect person.

He smiled and bent down, pressing his lips gently to mine. I arched my back, my hands searching for his. It was moments like these that my heart threatened to burst with what I felt. It was the quiet, solitary shows of affection that I loved. His tiny displays made me more giddy and happy than ever, though I had to be careful not to miss then. A quick squeeze of my hand, a brush on my face or him playing with my hair when he thought that I was asleep was all I needed.

Mush, I know. Absolute mush, sap and fluff. Do I care? No, not really.

His kiss, however, was not quiet. The chaste breath of a kiss suddenly turned raw and needy. His hands left mine and instead cupped my cheeks. I had to force myself not to grin into that kiss. Suddenly, I found myself with my back to the sand and Heero above me, his arms supporting his body.

"Aw," I said, looking at him with a pout. "Sand's in my hair again."

He laughed. I can't count the amount of times I've heard him laugh. But it is a beautiful sound. More so than Quatre and Trowa's duet. My insides just light up every time I hear him.

The moon was right behind Heero's head, giving him a sort of etheral halo. '_Perfect,' _I though, reaching upwards to brush his cheek. _'My perfect soldier.' _ Heero closed his eyes and moved downwards until he was rubbing his forehead on mine. He really is just like a really big cat. I giggled at the thought. A big Heero-neko with paws and ears. Sweet.

"What is it?" he asked, most probably wondering what I found so funny. God, I almost groaned at the sound of his low, rumbling voice. He was completely resting his full body weight on me now, nose to nose, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip.

"Nothing," I breathed, and wrapped my arms around his torso. I kissed his lips, a small butterfly kiss. The edges of his mouth tilted upwards and he copied me. The kisses were sweet and sugary. And something much more mature. He kissed me again. And again. And again.

"Um," I said, reluctantly batting him away. "We should-" _kiss_. "We should probably-" _kiss_. "Stop." _kiss_. "Hee-" _kiss_. He wouldn't let me move away. Gods, who knew stopping would be so hard? Finally, he moved off me and immediately, I missed his warm, comforting weight. I gasped out loud, getting my breath back. I blinked rapidly, trying to get my eyes to refocus. Heero must have noticed the spaced out look I had on my face because he laughed again and said, "Well you said that we should stop."

Sneaky bastard.

Instead of answering, I shifted so that my head lay on his lap. He immediately began to play with my bangs and I hummed with pleasure as his hands ran through the locks. It was so warm, even though it was night time in the desert and it's supposed to be freezing. Must be Heero.

"Duo," Heero said suddenly. "Promise me something."

"Hmm?" I mumbled absentmindedly, nearly falling asleep. "What?"

"I'm not going to ask you not to leave me, because if you do, then it would be my fault. I'm not going to ask you to love me forever because that's...that might change in the future. But..."

I looked up at him. I couldn't think of what to say.

"But, Duo. Be honest with me. Always. Don't hide things from me. Please."

I laughed, a gentle laugh, and clasped his hands in mine and pressed them to my chest. "Do you feel that?" I said, closing my eyes. His fingers were warm and there was a slight tremble.

"Yes."

He was fascinated with the living, pulse that throbbed beneath his hand and his fingers trembled slightly.

"That, Heero, is my heart beating. It is my heart and you Heero, and only you, are a part of it. Even if we are separate, just remember that somewhere, somewhere out there, my heart is beating." I moved his hand from my chest to my lips. "Just remember the sound," I murmured. "Of my heart beating."

He smiled.

"And I'll remember yours," I finished quitely, and I raised our clasped hands to the star speckled heavens in a gesture of silent gratitude.

* * *

**AN **Finished. Over. No more. That's it. Wow. I really had fun writing this. I didn't need to think too hard about it. Special thanks to **Kira May Maxwell, ffpanda, Serenity Maxwell **and **Keiichisei **because they are my special reviewersFor more 1x2 smush, start reading _Home is where the milk is_.Go. Now.  



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